For Earth Day this year, I wanted to do something special. After all, the purpose of Earth Day – caring for our planet – most definitely deserves to be recognized. So we hosted a little Earth Day party in our backyard for our children and nieces and nephew. Since it was Earth Day, I made every effort to keep the celebration eco-friendly with recycled, reused, and upcycled items. I’m sharing lots of photos from our fun afternoon, along with tips to keep your own parties environmentally-conscious.
To keep our Earth Day party green, I thoughtfully picked decorations that I could make from used items or that I already had on hand. I made a hanging garland in teals, blues and greens from scraps of fabric I had leftover from past projects and from a plaid shirt I found at Goodwill.
An obvious decoration for an Earth Day party is flowers or plants. I filled a white crate with annual plants and used it as both a decoration and an activity – the children could plant the flowers in pots during the party. (Note: Planting flowers, trees or shrubs for Earth Day is a great idea but be mindful of what you’re planting. Stay away from invasive and pick native plants for your local region.)
My sister has a giant globe, so I clearly had to use it for our earth celebration. This wasn’t the first time the globe served as a party decoration; we used it before at my sister Emily’s baby shower.
I wanted the children to do crafts while we taught them just a bit about our planet. Since our kiddos are just tots, we kept things super simple. I cut out blue and green scraps from old magazines to use to make earth collages, which the children glued to circles cut from recycled brown paper grocery bags.
We also used our food to make environmentally-friendly art! I set out bowls of blueberries, granola, green grapes and yogurt-covered raisins and then we helped the kids make blue and green worlds by arranging the fruits and snacks on paper plates. (We found tree-free compostable plates for our crafting as well as for eating our party food.)
(Can we talk about Owen’s face for a sec? I mean look. how. cute. Even with his Dumb and Dumber Lloyd hairdo. His smile just kills my mama heart.)
We brought Owen’s kids table from his bedroom outside for the children to do their crafts. I covered the table with bright blue fabric leftover from another project, and I made a little table runner from artificial moss that I had from Owen’s third birthday party.
For the food, I made a menu of finger foods so we didn’t have to use plastic utensils or wash silverware. We used tree-free biodegradable plates along with cloth napkins and recycled glassware to cut down on waste.
Even the paper straws were leftovers from a previous party! 🙂 I displayed all the plates, glassware, napkins, and craft supplies on an old wooden ladder.
A tiny bit of green food coloring made our limeade look extra festive for Earth Day. And, of course, our turkey roll-ups had to be made with green herb wraps.
My absolute favorite part of the Earth Day party was the earth-shaped frozen Greek yogurt popsicles (and the kids’ favorite part too!). They looked so bright and awesome, but they were REALLY easy to make. I traced circles on wax paper on a baking sheet. Then I dyed vanilla Greek yogurt blue and green. I spooned a little blue yogurt in the middle of each circle and laid a popsicle stick in the yogurt. Then I added more blue yogurt and spread it out carefully to fill the circles completely. Next, I put the green yogurt in a ziploc bag and snipped off a corner. I piped some green yogurt onto the circles of blue yogurt, making them look like earth with land and water. Lastly, I popped them in the freezer overnight. The children devoured them at the Earth Day party the next day!
Looks pretty amazing for being eco-conscious, right? Here are some ideas for keeping your parties green too.
Tips for Hosting an Eco-Friendly Earth Day Party
- Use leftover supplies from past parties
- Serve finger foods so you don’t need to use plastic cutlery or wash more items
- Check your local Goodwill or yard sales for resale items that can be used for decorations or serving-ware
- Be creative and find new uses for things you already have
- Use recycled or biodegradable materials or items that aren’t disposable, like glassware instead of plastic cups
- Skip handing out favors, unless they are edible, since most end up as junk in the landfills
Do you have any other tips for staying eco-conscious when planning parties? Did you do anything for Earth Day? Share your ideas for celebrating our planet!
